I remember perfectly my first car, a Mercedes. Back in the ’90s, when I was still doing my university studies in the Finnish city of Tampere, we used to make weekend road trips with my friends back to our childhood hometown in Central Finland. Seeing parents, friends and all that regular stuff.

The Mercedes served well the purpose.

For a student at my age, it was just a perfect car. A damn fine piece of German automotive industry, furnished with latest solutions, top-notch technology and unparalleled design.

At least that’s how it felt in the early ’90s.

Since then, things have taken off swiftly with cars. What once was mainly a mechanical finesse has increasingly become a digital playground. Modern cars are filled with technologies and digital solutions that I could not have imagined when I bought my first Mercedes.

Currently, I drive a Volvo, even though I admit having a special soft spot for German cars. When you really think about it, the difference to my first car is tremendous. Back in the days, if there was a technical issue, I could handle it most of the time by myself. Things are more complex nowadays. I hold a PhD in Computer Science but think twice before putting my fingers on my car’s mechanics.

It’s just so full of tech, and that’s precisely where Finland comes into play.

Now, Finland may not pose a long list of world-famous car brands, the likes of Audi, Ford or Toyota that everyone knows more than well. However, what’s common with more or less all the big brands is that they run on Finnish technology and design. Digitalization within the car industry has opened a completely new field for Finnish companies, who master tech and design.

Modern car is not a simple compilation with four tires and a wheel, but rather an increasingly complex platform, which combines tech, nuanced interfaces, sensors and software. Simultaneously, with more complex cars, software is getting more sophisticated, while product life cycles shorten.